Blast to the Green Screen-y Past

Evolution of Effects

Within film, special effects were needed from the very beginning to give them the special "magical feel" that everyone is familiar with today. From the rudimentary beginnings using simple exposures to create some of the first effects to the green screen of today, innovations are always needed to make the movies even more realistic. But I needed to see the beginnings in order to fully appreciate the much more simple task of green-screening. So I decided to find some examples of the special effects that soon developed into the cinematic beauties many are used to. The main source used is from Filmmaker IQ.

The Magician's Medium

What is the Magician's Medium?

The Magician's medium is one of the first methods used for special effects, used and created by one of the first pioneers of film, Georges Méliès. Georges uses multiple exposure to create his effects, meaning he paints over some spaces in the lens of the camera and re-shoots the scenes later with the paint removed, giving more exposure to a subject rather than the background. The only issue was that films utilizing this can't go across the camera, as they would walk into areas blocked out from the paint. What came next was a solution, the "Black Screen" or also known as "The Williams Process".

The "Black Screen"

How did the Black Screen technique work?

This progress was simpler, tape actors acting in front of a pure black background, and with blanching out the film, actors were distinguished with pale, white figures while the background can be changed from anything, from previous filmed scenes to still images. The Black screen made it easy to distinguish the actors and let them move around, becoming one of the first "moving mattes" to be used in film. A famous example is 1933's "The Invisible Man" where the main actor wore all black to go with the black background and made himself "invisible" within the film.

The Dunning Process

Who created the Dunning Process?

A man named C. Dodge Dunning found issues with the Williams Process, as shadows were lost against the screen and it made the whole film seem two dimensional. So he created a method of using a blue screen to track the moving mattes of actors and used a yellow light to shine on actors, highlighting them more AND have them keep their shadows. However, this method was faulty as well, as it could only be used in black and white films well and when used in colored films due to the meddling of Lawrence Butler, there was always a noticeable blue line within the shots. The fine details of hair and smoke were also lost. So as to compensate, along came a new method, the yellow screen.

The Yellow Screen

Who owned the Yellow Screen Camera?

Yellow Screens involved actors being shot in normal light and acting in front of a blank screen illuminated by sodium vapor lights (used in streetlamps at the time used, in the '60s and '70s) it was tuned to a specific wavelength for a specific camera, nothing else would work. Disney owned the only camera in existence, which made rivals try to find a suitable counterpart to counteract Disney's superior technology. This was found with the Color Matte Difference.

Color Matte Difference

What was the purpose/technique of Color Matte Difference?

The Dunning Process was revisited and made rediscovered by Petro Vlahos (also creator of the yellow screen process) by using the old bluescreen once again. He used a "positive" (Green Cancellation process) and ran the film through a color negative and exposing both film strips together under a blue sheet to light to create a difference matte. (This is where filmmakers separate the fuzzing blue overhue from the background out.) The matte was made clearer with the blue and green lights the same amount. Then the matte was run through AGAIN using green and its opposite mask, red, to create the synthetic blue separation. This complicated process remained in popular use for about 40 years until the digital age came up.

Digital Process

Where is this used now?

This is the current form of special effect technology, and the one many are familiar with. The reason green came about was due to the fact that green was easier to light than blue, as well as cheaper. Green is brighter on computers than blue, and blue is also the color of the sky. Bright green was less common than blue overall. Other screens are still used for filming in digital today, depending on shots or movies, but green is the easiest due to the green being easier to read on camera and the mattes being easier to define due to the enhancements of digital cameras.

Thoughts

I have learned much about the history of effects, I didn't even know there were so many so early on in film! But since the industry is continually growing, effects will continue to do the same. I just can't wait to see how much more realism can be added to our movie going experience. Peace out peeps!